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The Hobbit: There and Back Again box art
2025 Ranked #1,182

The Hobbit: There and Back Again

Reiner Knizia turns The Hobbit into a beautifully illustrated dice-drafting journey with eight distinct, replayable adventure sheets.

Family Games Fantasy Dice Rolling Open Drafting Solo / Solitaire Game

Players

1-4

Play time

30 min

Age

10+

Complexity

1.84/5

Rating

7.59

Easier to teach Low interaction Light strategy
Compare 1 verified offer Watch how to play

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 4.5/5

Easier to teach

Replay value 4.4/5

High replayability

Interaction 2.9/5

Low interaction

Player scaling 4.3/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 2.9/5

Light strategy

Player control 3.8/5

More strategic control

Setup time About 4 min
Teach time About 10 min
Recommended edition The Hobbit: There and Back Again – Office Dog English edition (2025)
See all 25 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

Draft dice, mark winding paths through eight illustrated chapters, gather resources, and help Bilbo overcome the defining obstacles of his journey.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Dice Rolling

Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Open Drafting

Select cards or items from a shared face-up display.
Solo / Solitaire Game

Provide rules and objectives designed for a single player.
Read the full game description

The Hobbit: There and Back Again retells Bilbo’s adventure as eight replayable roll-and-write chapters. A pool of five six-sided dice and one twelve-sided die creates the options everyone drafts in turn. Chosen results collect bread, swords, and other resources or mark connected paths through individual dry-erase adventure books. Each chapter reshapes those shared ideas around a memorable episode, from leaving Bag End and avoiding trolls to riddles, goblins, and the Lonely Mountain. Players compare chapter scores in competitive play, while a dedicated solo mode and adjustable challenges make the full story easy to revisit.

Browse all classifications

Type

1
Family Games

Category

4
Adventure Dice Fantasy Novel-based

Mechanism

3
Dice Rolling Open Drafting Solo / Solitaire Game

Shopping

Where to buy

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Asmodee USA

The Hobbit: There and Back Again

USD 34.99 Out Of Stock
View at retailer

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How to play

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Photos (4)

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Publisher source

Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
The Hobbit: There and Back Again – Office Dog English edition (2025) 2025 English Office Dog / US

Game and edition data

All specifications (25)

Play and group

Players
1–4
Play time
30 min
Age
10+
Complexity
1.8/5
App
None app Source
Player elimination
No Source
Downtime
Low Source

Practicalities

Setup time
About 4 min Source
Teach time
About 10 min Source
Teardown time
About 4 min Source

Campaign and continuity

Group continuity
Flexible Source
Resettable
Fully Resettable Source
Save system
No required save system; chapters may be played individually or in story order. Source
Consumable components
Dry-erase player books are reusable; marker ink eventually needs replacement. Source

Edition and product

Optional extras
Includes eight chapter boards, four dry-erase markers, six dice, and eighty tokens. Source
Recommended edition
The Hobbit: There and Back Again – Office Dog English edition (2025) Source
Language
English
Region
US
Availability
Current
Edition type
Standard Source
Current edition
Yes Source
Box weight
900 g Source
Box dimensions
27.9 × 21.6 × 5.7 cm Source
Consumable components
Four Dry Erase Markers; The Boards Themselves Are Reusable. Source
Compatibility
Office Dog English Retail Edition, Sku Odgrwm0101En. Source

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Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
Reiner Knizia

Artists

1
Lorenzo Colangeli

Publishers

1
Office Dog

Linked items

No published linked games yet.